Logo text

[This story contains spoilers from The Gilded Age season four premiere.]

The Gilded Age is officially back. And while that world is still turning, it’s not quite moving in the way many fans had predicted.

After a third season filled with dramatic deaths and near-deaths — not to mention an arranged marriage motivated by power and position later punished with an unexpected sacrifice of the heart and an exciting wedding proposal — season four’s first episode “Ring the Bells,” directed by executive producer Salli Richardson-Whitfield , immediately kicks off with another seesaw of emotions.

In England, Gladys — as many women, even the wealthy ones, of that era did — experiences the life-threatening birth of her first child with the loving Duke she was forced to marry, and now adores, by her side , while Oscar van Rhijn trades “I do’s” with his bride ( yes, bride! ) Enid Winterton, the new Mrs.…